The multiple personalities of plants

When you first start observing plants in all their intricate glory regularly and close up, a whole new world begins to emerge.  From their fragile beginnings with tiny seedlings reaching for the light, to buds hiding the beauty within, the bursts of colours and patterns displayed by flowers, fruit, berries and leaves ending in colour changes and peculiar but often attractive seed heads. The life cycles of flora can be fascinating, opening up a whole new world for photographers which can last all year round. Whether producing images on location, in nature or gardens or  capturing blooms from a florist, or getting creative with dried pressed flowers and seed heads on a light box, putting together a still life setting or maybe using sections of a plant as a prop, the possibilities are endless.

Conditions for shooting and useful bits of kit

It can be worth looking ahead at weather conditions if you are planning to photograph your botanicals on location. I tend to choose a day with very little wind where possible, preferably a nice light day with cloud cover, as sunshine can cause some harsh, unwanted highlights and shadows. Taking a collapsible reflector that strips down to a white diffuser could help when the sunlight is  harsh, this can be held in place with a tripod or stand and clamp/plamp, or by a friend. The reflector can come in handy for bouncing light into shadows too, but if you do not own one a piece of foil folded in your bag can be an alternative solution.

Useful items to take with you if you choose to shoot outside could include a roll up or folding mat of some description so that you can kneel or lie on the ground and stay clean as well as dry, even a bin bag can suffice if space and weight are issues. Another item I often take along is a tiny fine misting spray bottle, sometimes a gentle misting of water can give extra interest, adding a new dimension.

There are times when a very low tripod can come in handy, especially if light is low and conditions suitable for a longer exposure. Or maybe on a windy day it can be interesting to capture movement in the plats/grasses etc with your long exposure. A remote shutter control is handy too.

Buds and shoots

Whilst its nice to capture plants in situ it can be inconvenient, particularly when you need to get down low and its muddy or its windy and blowing your subject all over, don't feel you have to photograph your subjects as they are in the garden, with a little fore thought and planning you can get using them for the most creative props. I had the idea of using the spiral shoots from a Passion flower climber as a prop for an insect years ago, so planted one in my next garden and waited for the spirals  to grow. The orchid mantis is a whole other story but also required planning.

You don't need an insect to show off your chosen section of vegetation, try an abstract approach  or adding water.

If you don't mind cutting a section of your plant off then you can position it somewhere more pleasing using a vase, plamp, etc. Here I placed an out of focus photograph ( many available via my website) behind this Freesia in bud plus poppy bud and let a Ladybird explore prior to evicting it from our house.

 Its a good idea to get to know which plants grow where in your local area/garden and which month they are due to produce buds, flowers, berries, fruit. unfurl leaves, and seed heads. You could scour  floral photography groups on social media or browse the winning galleries displayed on International garden photographer of the year or RHS POTY etc for some inspiration and take it from there.

Flowers

 Often when photographing flowers I seek a fully intact specimen with no brown spots, holes, half eaten petals and leaves. I do use a very small fine brush (000) in my kit bag to sweep away any offending pieces of dirt or to gently move along any undesirable insects etc without harming them. I'm not going to cover shooting flowers here as they deserve a whole separate blog, I mostly wanted to draw attention to the often over looked parts of plants in this blog.

Fruit, Berries and vegetables

We have such a wonderful array of fruit, berries and vegetables so don't forget about the fruit bearing offerings of our botanical subjects. Not only do they look appealing in situ but they make wonderful still life subjects.

The berries below were captured using a Helios lens giving a fabulous circular bokeh, quite similar to the berries themselves.

Use your fruit/veg in still life or food photography ( see separate blog on both)

Seed heads

I find seed heads and seeds intriguing, with plants having so many unique looking and often quite magical dispersion methods. This last couple of months I have delighted in capturing Dandelion seed heads in one of my last blogs and then found my Pasque flowers ( Pulsatilla vulgaris)  developing fluffy seed heads lending them selves to almost whimsical arty depictions. below are just a few different seed heads to whet your appetite - I would love to see a few that you enjoy capturing. ( not sure if you can them in the comments)

 Sometimes old leaves, old seedheads etc can have hidden details such as the Physallis below - if you have fresh ones you can try boiling them for 30 minutes with bicarbonate of soda added, then gently removing the leaf pulp to show the leaf skeletons.

Leaves and grasses

The leaves on plants and trees can be quite fascinating subjects too, often lending themselves to more abstract compositions. Even the silhouettes can produce food for the imagination. I frequently make use of leaves as props with insects, reptiles or amphibians too - the leaf skeletons are another interesting component to make use of - these are reasonably easy to make yourself ( I managed to obtain the leaf skeletons out of the Chinese lantern plants in the above image by boiling them), or they can be purchased online.
I have started preserving a few leaves and flowers by pressing in books for future use in lightbox images such as the one below using ferns, where Ive added pressed daisies, dandelion seeds and salsify seeds.

I find each season brings new delights with foliage. Spring gives unfurling leaves, shoots and flowers with the promise of life and colour, summer gives us a wider variety of flourishing vibrant, lush foliage everywhere we look, whilst autumn draws me with its beautiful array of colours and dying leaves, then winter offers new opportunities in shapes and frost covered old leaves, stems, seed heads etc. Its not always about capturing the subject but sometimes I just want to capture a feeling - such as below I wanted to capture the essence of a summers evening and used the grasses plus sunshine.

Weeds

Don't overlook weeds, they can make worthy subjects too - I find such beauty in weeds and when out you often find interesting insects inhabiting them such as caterpillars. Many butterflies and moths use weeds to lay their eggs so they can be useful to let grow if you don't mind them in a patch of your garden - this might help attract more wildlife in time. Below are just a few weeds from recent months. I hope I have helped you look at plants a little more and hope look forward to seeing your botanical creations whatever the time of year.

Lets get creative! A bit about me

I thought about writing a photography blog a few times but never got round to it. The time is right so here we go.  A  little bit about me before my first creative photography post.

I am 52 and live in Tyne and Wear. I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, but have lived about half of my life in other areas around the UK, including about ten years in Middlesbrough and Stockton on Tees, plus about nine years around Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. I've settled back in Tyne and Wear and find myself living near the coast now, not far from Cullercoats/ Tynemouth/ North Shields. I am lucky enough to live near some stunning coastal scenery, a wonderful, vibrant city and not far from beautiful countryside, with lots of  varied nature reserves all around me. I live with my partner Michael and have a 21 year old daughter living nearby.

 I used to work as a nurse, ending my career on a high as a Rheumatology specialist nurse. Since then I worked part time in a specialist reptile shop and as editor for a reptile magazine. My career was cut short as  I have M.E. which means that I tire easily, have very little energy and cannot walk far at present - I currently use a mobility scooter  or wheelchair to get out. Im explaining how it affects me here as I have to adapt how I do photography. The M.E also affects my cognitive functioning, my memory, my ability to think things through, problem solve and causes brain fog. Other symptoms I experience are pain, cold hands and feet, difficulty regulating my temperature,  sleep disturbances. I've had M.E. for 14 years, it does affect how I approach photography so its worth mentioning this now as I have had to adapt over the years in many ways. Some of these ways might be useful to other photographers now stuck at home under lock down, hence starting my blog now so that I can share many of the ways that I have adapted in my photography at home.

 I have always been interested in art and crafts, from choosing art and pottery, plus the history of art as subjects at school, to continuing to draw and paint as an adult, resulting in being commissioned to produce some paintings. I also enjoyed cross stitch, embroidery, knitting complicated patterns, getting creative with home decorating - free style painting characters on my daughters bedroom walls etc, planning and creating gardens, designing tattoos, learning Photoshop and designing banners. In recent years I have designed and made jewellery - mostly with copper and polymer clay, as well as copper wall art - I have a strong interest in creating copper art and jewellery with patinas and plan to work on this further in time, although I have had take a break from making copper jewellery lately. 

 But as you can see I have always had a creative nature. Since delving into photography I discovered that I love creative portraiture and have been drawn to create portraits with a bit of a fantasy or historical element to them (think Vikings, witches, fairy tale characters etc). Not being able to afford to buy or hire costumes or head wear, I slowly created my own head wear and simple outfits and still do this now, although it can take me months to make one head wear - I love the process of planning and pulling everything together. I will go into this more in future blogs. I am lucky to have some wonderfully talented creatives amongst my friends who also produce outfits which I borrow.

  I have consistently enjoyed taking photographs all my life,  but didn't get into photography properly until I had M.E, I was given a camera as a present and decided to use manual settings only two weeks later. At this point I was spending most of my time at home, so chose to photograph flowers from my garden, my pets which were frogs, and reptiles from the shops my partner ran, as well as insects and nature when I could manage to walk to the countryside just ten minutes away.

 Over the years I have tried most genres of photography and enjoy macro/close, landscapes, gigs and portraits more than anything else. But I like to get creative with these where I can. Obviously I cant do much in the way of landscapes when stuck at home with limited energy, and portraiture can be limited too, but I have found ways around this where I can plan ahead and shoot a portrait session in 25 minutes! at home. 

I've had to stop shooting gigs whilst working on improving my health for now, but over the years Ive been lucky in getting photo passes to photograph two out of three of my favourite bands. So I am mainly producing macro and close up images with the occasional bit of portraiture, although that has had to stop due to lock down.

 Im hoping this little bit of background story will give you a fuller picture of me and explain some of the reasons why I do what I do.